A Mompreneur’s Chronicle Of Life With Her Boys

Sweetest Boy

Jan 25 2012

I have the sweetest son. Jack has always had a big heart, but he has really shown it over the last few days.

Saturday night Jim and I went out to dinner with friends, so the boys had a babysitter. They hadn’t seen Megan, the babysitter, for a while. While I was getting ready to go, he came in and showed me several notes he had written for her. When we arrived at dinner I noticed the note below in my purse from him. Jim and Will got notes too. He wanted to make sure that we all knew that he loved us. How cute is that?

Early Sunday morning I woke up to a raging sore throat and felt awful. Needless to say, I spent most of Sunday on the sofa. Again, Jack made a personal note for me as he was concerned and hoped it would make me feel better. It certainly raised my spirits but unfortunately couldn’t raise rid me of my illness.

Monday I found out it was strep throat (thanks Oliver) and I started to feel a bit better with the help of antibiotics. Jack told Jim he wanted to make breakfast in bed for me, because “that makes moms feel better, like it does on Mother’s Day.” So this morning I didn’t get full breakfast, but I got orange juice and tea (the best Jim could do on short notice). He wanted to bring flowers too, but since we still have snow in our flower beds, there were no flowers to be found. So instead, I received in a vase a dry sprig from our Christmas wreath that is still hanging on the front of the house. What a good way to wake up.

Jack is truly unique and his sensitivity and care for others is such a blessing. I hope these traits will remain with him forever. His wife and kids will love him for it, as do the rest of us.

Filed Under: family, Jackson 3 Comments

Our Week

Jan 20 2012

Boy this has been a crazy week. So here it is in photos.

Saturday – Auntie Steffi, Unkie Paul, Oliver and Finley arrive to find scattered snow flurries. Luckily we were cozy inside watching football games.

Sunday – We woke up to about an inch of snow on the ground. The boys headed out to play in snow – round one. After round 2 of snow on Sunday we ended up with about 4 inches. More fun for the boys!

 

Monday – A morning of errands for some and more snow play. Then an afternoon of Xbox.

Tuesday – We were supposed to take the kids up to the pass for a little skiing (we were going to keep Jack home from school, but they ended up canceling school), unfortunately we woke up to the pass being closed for six hours. We reworked our plans and went sledding at Snoqualmie Ridge instead, since we had very little snow at our house. Sunday’s and Monday’s accumulations had melted.

 

 

Wednesday – No school again and bunches of snow. We took the boys to a small hill in the neighborhood to give the little boys (Will and Oliver) a chance to try out skiing. Unfortunately or luckily depending upon how you look at (airport closed on Thursday) it our visitors headed home.

 

Thursday – Ice storm. The storm was supposed to be over and instead it got worse. School was canceled again. We had freezing rain all morning and then more snow again in the afternoon and evening. Our power went out at 8 a.m. By 2 p.m. it was 58 degrees in our house. Luckily we have good neighbors who have a generator so we headed there for dinner and much needed warmth.

Friday – The power came on at 12:30 a.m. and the cable came on late morning, so life is almost back to normal. We still have inches of snow on the ground, but the ice is melting. Hopefully school will be back in session by Monday.

 

We will be back to our normal programming next week.

Photo Credit – Unkie Paul and me

Filed Under: family Tagged With: , , , , Leave a Comment

Ho Ho Holiday Card

Dec 19 2011

The following is our holiday card and letter (that Jim writes) for this year. For those that aren’t on our list now you can enjoy Jim’s famous letter and our beautiful Tiny Prints cards and for those that have already received them you can appreciate them again.


 

Ho Ho Ho and Yo Ho Ho. We kicked off the holiday season this year with a recent trip to Disneyland with Sarah’s sister’s family and Sarah’s parents. Lines were Fantasmic so we were able to Star Tour both parks and frequent all of the rides with ease. We even ran into Jack’s kindergarten teacher at California Adventure – it really is a Small World after all. Even though It’s Tough To Be a Bug, Stefani and Paul’s two month-old, Finley, was with us all the way. So read on for more about our magical ride through 2011 or use your Fast Pass to bypass this letter and head straight to our card.

Jungle Cruise (Wait Time to End of Letter From Here: 5 mins) – Hawaii Trip

In March, Sarah and I returned to the location of the last leg of our honeymoon years ago — the Big Island. With kids in tow this time, we spent a week at the Waikoloa Resort. We toured the volcanoes (including a day hike at 10,000 feet), played golf and got our money’s worth at all of the resort’s pools.

Indiana Jones Adventure – Camping

Camping this year included three trips with our dear friends, the Yocums, to Grand Coulee, the Cowlitz Valley and Hood Canal (six families, 13 kids in total, including a Cyclops sighting). We also finally made it to Rainier National Park and camped in the shadow of Mt. Rainier. We enjoyed a day hike on the mountain (including snow) and surreal views with our friends, the Faleys.

Alice in Wonderland – Sarah’s Blog

Sarah continues to pursue her passion as a “Mompreneur” and launched her rebranded blog about life with two boys, www.thewilltosee.com. She has built a following online and through various social media outlets that will serve as a platform when she finishes writing books about pediatric gastrointestinal and vision issues.

Dumbo the Flying Elephant – Mulligan’s Surgery

In an effort to one-up her ACL tear in 2010, The World’s Greatest Dog decided to eat a corn cob this summer resulting in emergency stomach surgery and a huge scar. If she keeps this up, her reign as WGD could be in jeopardy.

Monsters Inc. (Wait Time to End of Letter From Here: 2 mins) – Jack and Will

Captain Jack (6) is now a 1st grader and dying to lose a tooth. He continues to excel in baseball and swimming, is honing his skills as a soccer defender (not so prolific at scoring), and is following in his Mom and Dad’s footsteps with his aptitude for golf. Jack loves to ride his new mountain bike in any/all weather conditions.

Goofy Will (2) found his voice this year and hasn’t stopped talking since. It’s like having the radio on in the background 24 hours a day. He even narrates movies for you. Will has quickly mastered his balance bike – a skill we hope will translate to the slopes when we throw him on skis for the first time this winter. We continue to test his vision twice a year and, to-date, he is testing in the normal range. While his vision impairment is evident and will be a lifelong challenge, we remain hopeful it will be mild.

Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride – Husky Football

Our beloved Huskies got off to an amazing start this year before crashing back down to earth. Their 7-5 record earned them a bid to the Alamo bowl against Baylor and their Heisman candidate QB. This year we also said goodbye to our beloved Husky Stadium and look forward to her much-deserved update in 2013.

Matterhorn (dubbed “Snow Monster Mountain” by Will) – Whistler Ski Trip

In January, we stayed in a slope-side condo on the Blackcomb side of Whistler, BC. We’ve had amazing luck with weather and conditions at Whistler…until this year. You roll the dice with this resort and this year we drew rain and clouds. However the weather didn’t hold Jack back from ski school or Will from playing in the snow with the nanny while Sarah and I hit the slopes.

Haunted Mansion – Halloween

We agreed again this year to chair the haunted maze at Jack’s school Halloween fundraiser and our “spirits” were buoyed by the long lines and post-event praise. We have qualified for free agency next year but I think we have a few more of these in us before we fade back into anonymity (check out Sarah’s blog for photos). Sarah once again made costumes for both boys with Jack as Tron and Will as a skeleton (“skelskin” in Will language) and both were amazing.

May you have many stars upon which to wish, and may all your dreams come true in 2012. Now sit back, and enjoy the ride.

Jim, Sarah, Jack, Will, and Mulligan

Filed Under: family, traditions Tagged With: , 2 Comments

Photo Friday

Dec 16 2011

Photo Friday – Snowflake Lane

This week we went to Bellevue for their nightly holiday celebration at Snowflake Lane. They have drummers, play holiday songs and even have characters. Somehow they make it snow as well. It is about 15-20 minutes long, which is the perfect length when you are standing on the sidewalk with two kids. It was fun to get into the holiday spirit.

Filed Under: family, Photo Friday Tagged With: , Leave a Comment

I Go Mickey Mouse Clubhouse

Dec 12 2011

Two weeks ago, we took the boys on their first trip to Disneyland (which Will called “Mickey Mouse Clubhouse”) where we met my sister’s family and my parents. Somehow even with the months of planning, we were able to keep the trip a secret from the boys and planned a big morning of reveal. We had been warned by friends not to expect a big reaction to the reveal, but I was sure that they would be excited.

Here’s how the exchange went down:

“Instead of going to school today, what would you like to do?”
Jack: “I want to go to Griffin’s house.”
Me: “What if we go to Disneyland instead?”
Jack: “No, I would rather go to Griffin’s house.”
Me: “Will, would you like to go to Disneyland?”
Will: “What?”
Me: “Well we are going to Disneyland, so let’s get excited.”

Although we got off to an underwhelming start, the trip was fantastic. We spent three and a half days in the two parks. Tuesday after our flight and a short nap for Will at the hotel, we headed to the park for a few hours before dinner. The first ride we took the kids on was Pirates of the Caribbean. We probably could have started off with a more benign ride, but they loved it (after the big dark drop at the beginning).

 

 

The park was decorated for Christmas, with a huge tree and wreaths everywhere. The Haunted Mansion had been taken over by Jack Skellington from Nightmare before Christmas, which we rode at least four times. The castle had snow on the roof and It’s a Small World was decorated with lights all over the building.

Our planning had paid off with short lines (longest was 20 minutes until Friday) and the ability to ride our favorites multiple times even with a two month old in tow. Finley (2 mos) was able to ride a bunch of the rides, including Pirates twice. The crowds at California Adventure on Friday were larger, but we still were able to sneak in rides on our favorites back at Disneyland at the end of the night.

 

Jack’s favorite rides were Big Thunder Mountain Railroad (my favorite too), Pirates, Star Tours and Haunted Mansion. Will’s favorites were Pirates, Haunted Mansion, Buzz Lightyear and Matterhorn (aka “Snow Monster Mountain”).

It was such a fun four days at the happiest place on Earth, where we all became kids again.

 

Photo credit, Unkie Paul, who did a great job capturing our time.

Filed Under: family, travel Tagged With: Leave a Comment

Photo Friday

Nov 25 2011

Photo Friday – Tree Farm

Today we made our annual trek to the Keith and Scott Tree Farm owned by our friends. The boys liked running all over the fields looking for trees until we had narrowed it down to two trees. Then they decided the walking back and forth wasn’t any fun. Of course in true DeNike style we picked the bigger of the two trees, even though we know we should pick the more narrow one. Oh, well. It is a beautiful tree and I need to get started putting lights on all 11 feet of it.

Filed Under: family, Photo Friday Tagged With: , 1 Comment

Only one

Oct 10 2011

This weekend Jim and I each took one child. Will and I headed to Sacramento to visit our new nephew and Jim and Jack had a boys weekend at home. I think it was good for everyone.

Will got to spend some time with cousin Oliver without his big brother running the show. Even though Oliver and Will are only five months apart, Jack and Oliver tend to team up and leave Will out (you know the saying about the third wheel.) This weekend the boys have been developing their relationship on their own terms. Now don’t get me wrong we still had plenty of disputes to resolve (they are 2.5 and 3 years old) but they also had times where it was just fun.

Jack and Jim worked on Jack’s new bed design. A little background… For his third birthday we gave Jack a Lightning McQueen bed, but not just a store bought one, but one we made from scratch. He has grown out of Cars so it was time to upgrade his room. I thought this meant some new paint and wall stickers. The two of them decided this also meant a whole new themed bed.

The boys have been at each other a bit more than usual recently, so it was nice to break them up and give them personal attention. I don’t think Will notices, but Jack will hopefully be refreshed and ready to listen to me a bit more.

I really enjoyed being able to spend time with Steffani, Paul, Oliver and Finley. We didn’t get to see as much of my parents as I would have liked, but this trip was about Finn. And we got some nice California sun and warmth.

Filed Under: family, Jackson, William Tagged With: , , , 1 Comment

We Checked Off Summer Fun

Sep 26 2011

Early in the summer we created a list of all the fun things we wanted to do over the summer, made a poster, and checked them off as we completed them. I was hoping that it would help keep things top of mind while providing a fun activity as we decorated the poster with stickers. Most importantly, it was a good reminder to celebrate what is truly important – family and the time we spend together.

Here are some of the fun summer activities we completed:

1. Go camping – We went four times, including a trip to Dosewallips with five other families.

2. Swim in the lake – We got to swim in both Lake Sammamish at my aunt and uncle’s lake house and Pine Lake with some good friends.

3. Go to SeaFair – Auntie Steffi, Unkie Paul and Oliver joined us at SeaFair this year and we got to watch the Blue Angels and the hydroplane boat races from the shoreline.

4. Make tie dye shirts – The family has a matching set of tie dyes. I am sure this is only the first of many tie dye projects.

5. Find a new ice cream spot – While in California we went to a new ice cream spot near Auntie, Unkie and Oliver’s house.

6. See fish throwing at Pike Place Market – After selecting our fish, Jack was so excited to see it get thrown back over the fish counter to be wrapped up.

7. Make garden art – Our painted rocks for the garden were not only fun, but were also featured in FamilyFun Magazine.

8. Pick berries – The boys and I got to pick blackberries near our house and came home with some war wounds to prove it.

9. Play golf – There was backyard golf, as well as golf on the course. Jim and I even got to go play a couple of rounds on our own – a rarity.

10. Paint a project – Jim and the boys made a pirate flag for the play fort and Jim is currenly working with Jack on a complete room makeover. They are making Jack and Optimus Prime bed and his room has been repainted to match the new colors.

Summer was fun, but we are ready for fall. Fall means Husky football, Friday night soccer and prep for Halloween. What will the costumes be this year? You will just have to wait and see.

I am linking up with Monday Listicles at NorthWestMommy.

 

Filed Under: family, traditions Tagged With: , , , , , , , , 4 Comments

We Are In!

Sep 19 2011

I am proud to report that this blog, The Will to See, is featured in the October issue of Disney’s FamilyFun Magazine. I know, I am so excited too. Look for the photo of the boys and me in the Mailbag section on page 11.

In July, I was contacted by FamilyFun regarding their use of my post about the June Badges of Fun, garden art. They took an excerpt from the post and used one of my photos.

If you are looking for a copy of the magazine, check your local grocery or book store. I know they have them at the QFC near our house. Look around and I am sure you can find it – who knows, it may become a collector’s item one day. It is also viewable online if you have a subscription, or you can get a subscription through this link.

For those of you who are new readers from the magazine, welcome. We are happy you are here. Please make yourself at home, browse around, leave a comment or send me a question. And please excuse the transition – we are in the process of updating the site, including an entire rebranding and look forward to sharing that with you very soon. Of course please follow us on twitter, like us on Facebook, sign up for our RSS feed or email subscription and feel free to forward us to anyone that you think might like our little blog.

 

Filed Under: Blogging, cool stuff, family, Featured Tagged With: , Leave a Comment

Badges of Fun – August

Aug 30 2011

As I have mentioned in previous posts, we are drawing our  summer inspiration from Disney FamilyFun Magazine’s Badges of Fun program where  you earn “badges” by completing fun family activities. In August, the great  activities were all centered around hitting the road and making road trips  easier and more fun with young kids. If there is one thing I know (hopefully I know more than one) it is about road-tripping with kids.

At least once a year, we drive from Seattle to Lodi,  California and back – about 14 +/- hours in the car each way. Yes, we do it all  in one day because it has been our experience that piling two adults, two kids and a dog into a cheap motel room equals no sleep for anyone, even the dog. It also doubles the amount of packing and unpacking so the pain of spending all day in the car is more than worth it.

The key to keeping your sanity of road trips, no matter the length, is planning ahead and packing the car appropriately. For our camping trips this year I started making a reading box which sits neatly between the boy’s seats in the car. It contains books, coloring books, crayons and other reading material.  Luckily I have two readers. Once we arrive at the campground, it moves into Poppy (our trailer) for bedtime or if they wake up early.

Each boy also packs a bag of toys. I have taken two reusable six-pack wine carriers and cut out the dividers, because these are smaller than the regular shoppers. They hold the right amount of toys and not only provide toys for the car, but also for use once we arrive at our destination.

Since you can’t have a road trip without food, I also pack our snack bag that sits on the floor right behind the center console for easy access. This includes not only kid snacks, but adult snacks too (hello Chex Mix,) especially if we are going to be on the road for a while. I have found that the freeze dried fruit slices (available at Costco) make a great healthy
snack that isn’t sticky.

Finally, for the adults, the keys to road trip sanity are DVD players and iPods. I know some people may be opposed to them, but for us we couldn’t do it without them. It’s like refusing pain medication during surgery – why bother? They don’t hand out awards at the end for those that endured the most pain and no one is any worse for wears as a result. Memorial Day weekend we went camping and got caught in traffic that added two extra hours to our drive (a 3.5 hour drive, became a 5.5 hour drive) and most of that extra time
was spent stopped on the freeway. The boys were complete angels, happily watching movies and eating snacks.

Are you participating in the Badges of Fun series? I would love to hear about what activities you are doing.

Filed Under: cool stuff, family, travel Tagged With: , , , Leave a Comment
Older Posts